Mahavishnu Orchestra

The Mahavishnu Orchestra is considered one of the most important Jazzrock-/Fusion-Bands 1970s. It was founded in 1971 by John McLaughlin. In addition to McLaughlin (guitar) played Jerry Goodman (violin ), Jan Hammer ( keyboards), Rick Laird (bass ) and Billy Cobham (drums).

Band History

John McLaughlin had assumed under the influence of his guru Sri Chinmoy in 1970 the name of Mahavishnu. He makes music a reputation as a jazz guitarist and, inter alia, with Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix before the establishment of the Mahavisnu Orchestra. From previous projects McLaughlin already knew bassist Laird and drummer Cobham. The formed with them and violinist Goodman and keyboardist Hammer Mahavishnu Orchestra had with his first two releases Inner Mounting Flame ( 1972) and Birds of Fire (1973 ) is already a great success and the group put their skills on the due attention too place live album Between Nothingness & Eternity proof. Since McLaughlin, not least because of its orientation to the Indian religion and its binding to Sri Chinmoy, more and more distant from his teammates, was the original Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1973 broken before the appearance of the live album.

McLaughlin took a 1973 album by Carlos Santana, another trailer Chinmoy on. In 1974, he reformed the Mahavishnu Orchestra with Jean -Luc Ponty (violin), Narada Michael Walden (drums, percussion ), Ralph Armstrong ( bass), Gayle Moran and Stu Goldberg (keyboards). For the first album with the new line, Apocalypse, George Martin was recruited as producer, also had musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas with. It also has two more albums were recorded, but reached the new band no longer the level and success of the first cast, so McLaughlin 1975 Mahavishnu Orchestra disbanded again to play with his new band Shakti acoustic music with Indian influences.

In the 1980s there was again an attempt to revive the Mahavishnu Orchestra, this time including with Bill Evans ( saxophone), Jim Beard (keyboards), Billy Cobham (drums) and Jonas Hellborg (bass ), but with limited success.

Discography

  • Inner Mounting Flame (Nov 1971)
  • Birds of Fire (Feb 1973)
  • Between Nothingness & Eternity (Nov 1973 live)
  • Apocalypse (Jan 1974)
  • Visions of the Emerald Beyond (Jan 1975)
  • Inner Worlds (Feb 1976)
  • Mahavishnu (Jan 1985)
  • Ad Ventures in Radioland (Jul 1987)
  • Unreleased Tracks from Between Nothingness & Eternity (1999, live recordings on Nov 1973)
Jazz fusion John McLaughlin (musician) Electronic keyboard Bass guitar Jean-Luc Ponty Shakti (Band) Bill Evans (Saxophonist)
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